McNerney: White House ignoring Stockton's struggle

STOCKTON - President Barack Obama's administration brought to bear $300 million in federal help to the bankrupt city of Detroit on Friday in a move that sparked a blistering response from a Stockton lawmaker.

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By Scott Smith

recordnet.com

By Scott Smith

Posted Sep. 28, 2013 at 12:01 AM

By Scott Smith

Posted Sep. 28, 2013 at 12:01 AM

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STOCKTON - President Barack Obama's administration brought to bear $300 million in federal help to the bankrupt city of Detroit on Friday in a move that sparked a blistering response from a Stockton lawmaker.

Congressman Jerry McNerney, a Democrat, sent a two-page letter to the White House pointing out the president's glaring oversight of Stockton's bankruptcy and rocky recovery of the city he calls home.

Until Detroit filed for Chapter 9 protection this summer grabbing national headlines, Stockton for more than a year had held the dubious title as the country's largest bankrupt city.

"Stockton has been left behind and ignored by the White House," McNerney wrote. "Your inaction and neglect of the San Joaquin Valley remain a common theme."

Councilman Michael Tubbs sent his own letter raising similar questions, and he said one will soon come from City Hall.

McNerney said in his letter that Stockton has led the nation in home foreclosures and struggles with high unemployment. The city was the nation's 10th most dangerous last year, and far too many live in poverty.

Yet, the president has not set foot in Stockton, despite McNerney's invitations to see first hand some of its problems. McNerney again in Friday's letter invited the president to tour the region.

"In your State of the Union speech in February, you promised to help the country's most economically depressed cities," the letter said. "Regrettably, Stockton was bypassed."

Stockton filed bankruptcy June 28, 2012, and city leaders have embarked on plans to exit from Chapter 9 protection. It proposed paying some creditors cents on the dollar and retired city employees now pay their own health care.

Residents in the Nov. 5 election will be asked to raise the city's sales taxes to help fund the fight on crime and pay Stockton's way out of bankruptcy. State and federal authorities have offered no help.

By contrast, the Obama Administration on Friday unveiled a $300 million strategy including federal and private help to fight blight, improve Detroit's struggling bus system and boost public safety.

"We are listening," Gene Sperling, the head of President Obama's National Economic Council, told the Detroit Free Press. "We are going to do everything that we are capable of."

The White House did not respond to The Record late Friday seeking comment on McNerney's letter.

The administration issued a statement noting that the assistance to Detroit was not a "bailout." Rather, federal authorities were helping the city more quickly access grant money already available.

The same gesture has not been made to Stockton, which is due millions in federal flood control projects and housing grants, McNerney wrote.

"Despite these broken promises and clear evidence that Stockton is in need of economic revitalization, your administration is focused solely on Detroit," McNerney wrote. "This is not a time for favoritism."

McNerney was not alone. Tubbs sent his own letter Friday to White House officials he worked under in an internship during his junior year at Stanford University.

Tubbs' letter went to Cecilia Muñoz, Assistant to the President and Director of Domestic Policy, and David Agnew, Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Intergovernmental Affairs.

"What differentiates the crisis in Detroit and the crisis in Stockton?" Tubbs wrote. "The federal government has the tools to act, and begs me to question what does Stockton need to do to garner some of this action?"